About Kim & Kerry

Liquor Barons Lesmurdie is owned by Kim Warr, and it’s fast becoming regarded as one of the whisk(e)y specialist stores within the group. We spent 5 minutes with Kim to get his perspective on whisky, and to tell us where it all started.

“In the beginning, when I bought the place in 1999, customers would come in and ask for premium whiskey, and we just didn’t have any. I couldn’t see why being in the Hills should be a good reason for not having what people were asking for, so I started to buy in on their requests. Shortly afterwards I won a trip to Scotland with William Grant & Sons to tour through the distilleries and regions there. Once there, I realised just how little I knew! Especially about Single Malts. So I dipped my toe in the water in Scotland, and once I got back, I was back with a vengeance. I was reading and learning about every whisky I could, and pretty soon the way I went – so did my bank account. My perspective was forever changed after that great trip. I started getting into the fine and rare stuff after seeing the Macallan 1401 Series at a casino in Macau. At the time I hadn’t appreciated how scarce and expensive they were… the rest is history.

What are you drinking currently? If I had to pick one now? Gosh, The Balvenie 15yo Single Barrel. It’s extremely smart, not peaty (if I want peaty I can go elsewhere). Each barrel is slightly different, and hand-selected by the master distiller. I drink it neat. Sometimes when we do customer courses here we add some drops of water to cut the whiskey and to help release the aromas. Once they go home they can drink it how they like, but we do like to get them started right.”